Has LaMarcus Aldridge Played His Final Game with the Portland Trail Blazers?
If the Portland Trail Blazers' Game 5 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday was the final chapter of LaMarcus Aldridge's story in Rip City, it'll be a disappointing one.
Memphis knocked the Blazers out of the playoffs with a 99-93 win that saw Aldridge, an unrestricted free agent this summer, cap a frustrating series with 14 points on 5-of-18 shooting. Clearly hampered by ligament damage to his left hand and worn down by a near-constant wrestling match with Zach Randolph, Aldridge managed to convert just 37 of his 112 shot attempts in the series.
The good news for Blazers fans may be that Aldridge didn't look angry when he went to the bench late in the fourth quarter after fouling out. He didn't appear to be fed up with his team. Instead, he wore a bemused expression, nearly smirking at how things played out.
He wasn't mad, wasn't frustrated by his performance or the lack of help from key teammates. But nobody would have blamed him if he had been.
Damian Lillard scored 22 points on 8-of-19 shooting but turned the ball over six times. Nicolas Batum was just 2-of-12 from the field. Starters Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo combined to convert a single field goal on the night.
Wesley Matthews' ruptured Achilles shifted responsibilities throughout the roster, and it was clear that some players simply weren't ready for altered roles.
Speaking of which, as Aldridge weighs his offseason options (which he most certainly will, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne), he'll have to consider just how significantly altered Portland's roster could become.
That's because he's not the Blazers' only unrestricted free agent.
Matthews will join him on the market, as will Lopez, Dorell Wright and, if they opt out, Steve Blake and Afflalo.
Depending on which players Portland decides to keep or replace, perhaps Aldridge's odds of staying will no longer be a coin-flip scenario.
Per Jason Quick of The Oregonian: "Some Blazers players have already said they are worried free agency will take Aldridge away from Portland this summer. Earlier this month, before a home game, a Blazers player estimated the chances of him returning to Portland at 50-50."
If Aldridge views this year's ouster as the final judgment on the Blazers' sub-contender status and he's not satisfied changes are on the way, he'll have his pick of alternatives.
During exit interviews, Dirk Nowitzki said he'd be willing to assume a bench role next season if the Dallas Mavericks were to bring in a marquee free agent: "My last two years, I want to enjoy,” Nowitzki told reporters. “I want to be (on) a good team. I want to be on a winning team. Playoffs. Hopefully deep runs. So, yeah, anything I’ve got to do to help is obviously no question.”
Aldridge is from Texas, the Mavs always pursue big names and they just so happen to have the cash to sign him to a massive deal. So that's a solid option.
The San Antonio Spurs could be another, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
"San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard can sell Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge on something that Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson and Carmelo Anthony are unable: the chance to play with basketball's best burgeoning two-way player, to secure his standing within a Spurs monolith rumbling beyond the genius of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili and into the second act of this generation's greatest basketball dynasty.
"
As enticing as leaving Portland might seem, Game 5 offered signs of why Aldridge might still be better off staying.
For starters, Lillard now has a lot of questions to answer—particularly with respect to his defense and decision-making. If he's the kind of star he's been billed as (and you'd have to assume Aldridge would have some insight here), Lillard should come back next year looking to prove something.
Chips on shoulders are typically great motivators, and maybe Lillard will reach a new level next season.
In addition, some of the Blazers' younger talents used the Memphis series to announce their readiness for expanded roles.
C.J. McCollum shook off a rough first two games to become Portland's most reliable perimeter scorer as the series progressed. He put up 26 points in Game 3, 18 more in Game 4 and a game-high 33 in Game 5. His confident shooting keyed an inspired third-quarter comeback Wednesday, and his seven made triples set a Blazers postseason record.
Meyers Leonard was, yet again, intriguing. He hit three of his five three-point attempts in Game 5, running his long-range mark for the series to a ridiculous 10 of 13.
A legitimate stretch 5 on offense, Leonard still has work to do on the other end, as this play from Memphis' Marc Gasol showed:
And despite the fact that McCollum's third-quarter outburst kept the Blazers afloat, there were indicators that he, too, had some improving yet to do, per Amin Elhassan of ESPN.com:
But if you're Aldridge, you've got to be tempted by the offensive spacing that would result from giving a theoretically still-improving Leonard a much larger role going forward. Seeing McCollum blossom must have been equally encouraging.
Judging by his postgame comments, per Quick, Aldridge believes his team is capable of more:
In fact, if Aldridge has any concerns about the personnel, they should probably reside with the guy deciding how they're used. Head coach Terry Stotts was consistently reluctant to hand over minutes to his high-performing young duo in Game 5, despite its obviously positive impact.
Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com voiced the question many Blazers fans were asking themselves:
To be fair to Stotts, it's easy to understand why—even after seeing his young guns perform well for a couple of games—he was reluctant to lean on them. As impressive as McCollum and Leonard were in this series, it's silly to pretend their contributions were foreseeable, as Quick observed:
Maybe this series will be more than a fluke for those two; maybe it'll be a springboard. Given the uncertainty surrounding free-agents-to-be Matthews and Lopez, the Blazers will need that to be the case.
And what Aldridge believes about the ability of his younger teammates to take on bigger roles will certainly inform his decision this summer.
If you're a Blazers fan, you have to at least acknowledge the possibility that Aldridge is through, and you probably also have to confront the fact that he's entitled to be. As presently constituted, Portland appears to be a notch below true contender status.
If Aldridge believes he can hook on with a team that occupies the level the Blazers haven't yet reached, it's hard to fault him. He's entering the end of his prime, and his injury issues this season served as a reminder that his career clock is ticking.
Leaving would mean giving up the full five-year max the Trail Blazers could offer him this summer—assuming Aldridge wants a multiyear deal and won't sign something short-term in hopes of cashing in when the salary cap spikes in 2016.
And it'll also mean reversing course on the assurances he made last summer, per Joe Freeman of The Oregonian:
"I want to be the best Blazer—ever. If I stay the rest of my career, I should be able to catch Clyde by then. I should be able to leave a mark on a big-time franchise that is going to be seen forever. And I will be able to say I played here my whole career. This city has embraced me and grown with me. I have so much history, it just makes sense to stay.
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A lot has changed since Aldridge said that in July 2014, and a lot hasn't, which may be equally important. Like last year, Portland's playoff run ended long before sniffing the Finals. That's discouraging.
Aldridge has given the Blazers everything they could have asked for for years, and he put off surgery on his thumb in order to keep giving this season. Yet they fell short again.
But if you think what's coming next is a suggestion Aldridge is going to leave because he has given so much and gotten a comparatively disappointing return, let me stop you there.
The money matters, sure. But the reason Aldridge is going to stay in Portland, the reason Game 5 wasn't his final one for the Blazers, was precisely because he has such a history of giving everything he could to his team.
And he gave his word last July.
Based on how he's conducted himself to this point, and the commitment he's shown all along, it's just too hard to imagine him taking it back.
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